I'm about to attend my first residency/workshop, too! I applied because it was framed as five days sitting with rocks by Lake Michigan and taking nature walks with a group of twelve artists who are drawn to water and nature. Wow, talk about geeking out with excitement! Once I was selected I set up a GoFundMe campaign to help me afford the trip and lodging, and within a week had raised twice what I thought I needed! I can't help but use exclamation points!
The timing does seem exquisite. Maybe there's not a bad time for such a stroke of good fortune. If it's not meant to be, it won't happen.
I'm trying to avoid over-planning. I haven't picked out any books to read, but now you've put that goal in my head. I've made "thank you" collage cards for all the people who contributed to my campaign, and I'm looking forward to finishing those and dropping them in a Milwaukee mailbox when I get there.
My intentions are: to stay open to conversation and learning from the experience; to make a few photographs and write about them, continuing an interrupted prosephotopoem mashup endeavor I started here on Substack at the outset of the year; and to facilitate a self-portrait project by the group members, using a 35mm camera, black-and-white film, and a long cable release (no instant gratification selfies). And maybe get a sunburned nose.
Best of luck with your residency. Time in coastal Maine sounds heavenly. The Great Lakes have always been my ocean, but I'm envious nonetheless.
What has worked for me when I give myself a self-directed residency is to decide on some direction ahead of time--perhaps a syllabus that lists readings or other inputs to attend to during the time, and ideas for what outputs I want to create. Since I am usually writing and revising at the same time, I might list out revision "tasks" and also ideas of what I hope to write. A rough schedule, in other words, that will allow for moments of quiet wandering...
The first question I ask myself is “how do I want to feel” and then I make a list of all the things that align with those feelings and pack the necessary tools to enable those experiences, knowing that they might not all happen! I make a loose list of the things I’d like to experience, and see if there’s a logical order to them throughout the week. I then collage a loose itinerary and pull some tarot cards as companions for my adventure! Then I show up and try to let the experience inform my choices, it takes me about a day to settle in. Albeit self-led residencies, I think I would extend the same process to something like yours!
I'm about to attend my first residency/workshop, too! I applied because it was framed as five days sitting with rocks by Lake Michigan and taking nature walks with a group of twelve artists who are drawn to water and nature. Wow, talk about geeking out with excitement! Once I was selected I set up a GoFundMe campaign to help me afford the trip and lodging, and within a week had raised twice what I thought I needed! I can't help but use exclamation points!
The timing does seem exquisite. Maybe there's not a bad time for such a stroke of good fortune. If it's not meant to be, it won't happen.
I'm trying to avoid over-planning. I haven't picked out any books to read, but now you've put that goal in my head. I've made "thank you" collage cards for all the people who contributed to my campaign, and I'm looking forward to finishing those and dropping them in a Milwaukee mailbox when I get there.
My intentions are: to stay open to conversation and learning from the experience; to make a few photographs and write about them, continuing an interrupted prosephotopoem mashup endeavor I started here on Substack at the outset of the year; and to facilitate a self-portrait project by the group members, using a 35mm camera, black-and-white film, and a long cable release (no instant gratification selfies). And maybe get a sunburned nose.
Best of luck with your residency. Time in coastal Maine sounds heavenly. The Great Lakes have always been my ocean, but I'm envious nonetheless.
Congratulations! Look forward to hearing how it goes. I wrote about my first artist residency experience here. Hope you find some interesting or helpful tidbits! https://open.substack.com/pub/jiling/p/ups-artist-residency-reflections?r=sufpb&utm_medium=ios
What has worked for me when I give myself a self-directed residency is to decide on some direction ahead of time--perhaps a syllabus that lists readings or other inputs to attend to during the time, and ideas for what outputs I want to create. Since I am usually writing and revising at the same time, I might list out revision "tasks" and also ideas of what I hope to write. A rough schedule, in other words, that will allow for moments of quiet wandering...
Congratulations! It sounds positively amazing! 💙🩷💙🩷
What a lovely essay! Congrats!
The first question I ask myself is “how do I want to feel” and then I make a list of all the things that align with those feelings and pack the necessary tools to enable those experiences, knowing that they might not all happen! I make a loose list of the things I’d like to experience, and see if there’s a logical order to them throughout the week. I then collage a loose itinerary and pull some tarot cards as companions for my adventure! Then I show up and try to let the experience inform my choices, it takes me about a day to settle in. Albeit self-led residencies, I think I would extend the same process to something like yours!
congrats!!!